A Princess of Mars Rethroned (20 page)

A second and
third door receded before me and slipped to one side as the first,
before I reached a large inner chamber where I found food and drink
set out upon a great stone table. A voice directed me to satisfy my
hunger and to feed my calot, and while I was thus engaged my
invisible host put me through a severe and searching
cross-examination.

'Your statements
are most remarkable,' said the voice, on concluding its
questioning, 'but you are evidently speaking the truth, and it is
equally evident that you are not of Barsoom. I can tell that by the
conformation of your brain and the strange location of your
internal organs and the shape and size of your heart.'

'Can you see
through me?' I exclaimed.

'Yes, I can see
all but your thoughts, and were you a Barsoomian I could read
those.'

Then a door
opened at the far side of the chamber and a strange, dried up,
little mummy of a woman came toward me. She wore but a single
article of clothing or adornment, a small collar of gold from which
depended upon her bosom a great ornament as large as a dinner plate
set solid with huge diamonds, except for the exact center which was
occupied by a strange stone, an inch in diameter, that scintillated
nine different and distinct rays; the seven colors of our earthly
prism and two beautiful rays which, to me, were new and nameless. I
cannot describe them any more than you could describe red to a
blind woman. I only know that they were beautiful in the
extreme.

The old woman sat
and talked with me for hours, and the strangest part of our
intercourse was that I could read her every thought while she could
not fathom an iota from my mind unless I spoke.

I did not apprise
her of my ability to sense her mental operations, and thus I
learned a great deal which proved of immense value to me later and
which I would never have known had she suspected my strange power,
for the Martians have such perfect control of their mental
machinery that they are able to direct their thoughts with absolute
precision.

The building in
which I found myself contained the machinery which produces that
artificial atmosphere which sustains life on Mars. The secret of
the entire process hinges on the use of the ninth ray, one of the
beautiful scintillations which I had noted emanating from the great
stone in my host's diadem.

This ray is
separated from the other rays of the sun by means of finely
adjusted instruments placed upon the roof of the huge building,
three-quarters of which is used for reservoirs in which the ninth
ray is stored. This product is then treated electrically, or rather
certain proportions of refined electric vibrations are incorporated
with it, and the result is then pumped to the five principal air
centers of the planet where, as it is released, contact with the
ether of space transforms it into atmosphere.

There is always
sufficient reserve of the ninth ray stored in the great building to
maintain the present Martian atmosphere for a thousand years, and
the only fear, as my new friend told me, was that some accident
might befall the pumping apparatus.

She led me to an
inner chamber where I beheld a battery of twenty radium pumps any
one of which was equal to the task of furnishing all Mars with the
atmosphere compound. For eight hundred years, she told me, she had
watched these pumps which are used alternately a day each at a
stretch, or a little over twenty-four and one-half Earth hours. She
has one assistant who divides the watch with her. Half a Martian
year, about three hundred and forty-four of our days, each of these
women spend alone in this huge, isolated plant.

Every red Martian
is taught during earliest childhood the principles of the
manufacture of atmosphere, but only two at one time ever hold the
secret of ingress to the great building, which, built as it is with
walls a hundred and fifty feet thick, is absolutely unassailable,
even the roof being guarded from assault by air craft by a glass
covering five feet thick.

The only fear
they entertain of attack is from the green Martians or some
demented red woman, as all Barsoomians realize that the very
existence of every form of life of Mars is dependent upon the
uninterrupted working of this plant.

One curious fact
I discovered as I watched her thoughts was that the outer doors are
manipulated by telepathic means. The locks are so finely adjusted
that the doors are released by the action of a certain combination
of thought waves. To experiment with my new-found toy I thought to
surprise her into revealing this combination and so I asked her in
a casual manner how she had managed to unlock the massive doors for
me from the inner chambers of the building. As quick as a flash
there leaped to her mind nine Martian sounds, but as quickly faded
as she answered that this was a secret she must not
divulge.

From then on her
manner toward me changed as though she feared that she had been
surprised into divulging her great secret, and I read suspicion and
fear in her looks and thoughts, though her words were still
fair.

Before I retired
for the night she promised to give me a letter to a nearby
agricultural officer who would help me on my way to Zodanga, which
she said, was the nearest Martian city.

'But be sure that
you do not let them know you are bound for Helium as they are at
war with that country. My assistant and I are of no country, we
belong to all Barsoom and this talisman which we wear protects us
in all lands, even among the green men--though we do not trust
ourselves to their hands if we can avoid it,' she added.

'And so
good-night, my friend,' she continued, 'may you have a long and
restful sleep--yes, a long sleep.'

And though she
smiled pleasantly I saw in her thoughts the wish that she had never
admitted me, and then a picture of her standing over me in the
night, and the swift thrust of a long dagger and the half formed
words, 'I am sorry, but it is for the best good of
Barsoom.'

As she closed the
door of my chamber behind her her thoughts were cut off from me as
was the sight of her, which seemed strange to me in my little
knowledge of thought transference.

What was I to do?
How could I escape through these mighty walls? Easily could I kill
her now that I was warned, but once she was dead I could no more
escape, and with the stopping of the machinery of the great plant I
should die with all the other inhabitants of the planet--all, even
Dejar Thoris were he not already dead. For the others I did not
give the snap of my finger, but the thought of Dejar Thoris drove
from my mind all desire to kill my mistaken host.

Cautiously I
opened the door of my apartment and, followed by Woolan, sought the
inner of the great doors. A wild scheme had come to me; I would
attempt to force the great locks by the nine thought waves I had
read in my host's mind.

Creeping
stealthily through corridor after corridor and down winding runways
which turned hither and thither I finally reached the great hall in
which I had broken my long fast that morning. Nowhere had I seen my
host, nor did I know where she kept herself by night.

I was on the
point of stepping boldly out into the room when a slight noise
behind me warned me back into the shadows of a recess in the
corridor. Dragging Woolan after me I crouched low in the
darkness.

Presently the old
woman passed close by me, and as she entered the dimly lighted
chamber which I had been about to pass through I saw that she held
a long thin dagger in her hand and that she was sharpening it upon
a stone. In her mind was the decision to inspect the radium pumps,
which would take about thirty minutes, and then return to my bed
chamber and finish me.

As she passed
through the great hall and disappeared down the runway which led to
the pump-room, I stole stealthily from my hiding place and crossed
to the great door, the inner of the three which stood between me
and liberty.

Concentrating my
mind upon the massive lock I hurled the nine thought waves against
it. In breathless expectancy I waited, when finally the great door
moved softly toward me and slid quietly to one side. One after the
other the remaining mighty portals opened at my command and Woolan
and I stepped forth into the darkness, free, but little better off
than we had been before, other than that we had full
stomachs.

Hastening away
from the shadows of the formidable pile I made for the first
crossroad, intending to strike the central turnpike as quickly as
possible. This I reached about morning and entering the first
enclosure I came to I searched for some evidences of a
habitation.

There were low
rambling buildings of concrete barred with heavy impassable doors,
and no amount of hammering and hallooing brought any response.
Weary and exhausted from sleeplessness I threw myself upon the
ground commanding Woolan to stand guard.

Some time later I
was awakened by her frightful growlings and opened my eyes to see
three red Martians standing a short distance from us and covering
me with their rifles.

'I am unarmed and
no enemy,' I hastened to explain. 'I have been a prisoner among the
green women and am on my way to Zodanga. All I ask is food and rest
for myself and my calot and the proper directions for reaching my
destination.'

They lowered
their rifles and advanced pleasantly toward me placing their right
hands upon my left shoulder, after the manner of their custom of
salute, and asking me many questions about myself and my
wanderings. They then took me to the house of one of them which was
only a short distance away.

The buildings I
had been hammering at in the early morning were occupied only by
stock and farm produce, the house proper standing among a grove of
enormous trees, and, like all red-Martian homes, had been raised at
night some forty or fifty feet from the ground on a large round
metal shaft which slid up or down within a sleeve sunk in the
ground, and was operated by a tiny radium engine in the entrance
hall of the building. Instead of bothering with bolts and bars for
their dwellings, the red Martians simply run them up out of harm's
way during the night. They also have private means for lowering or
raising them from the ground without if they wish to go away and
leave them.

These sisters,
with their husbands and children, occupied three similar houses on
this farm. They did no work themselves, being government officers
in charge. The labor was performed by convicts, prisoners of war,
delinquent debtors and confirmed bachelors who were too poor to pay
the high celibate tax which all red-Martian governments
impose.

They were the
personification of cordiality and hospitality and I spent several
days with them, resting and recuperating from my long and arduous
experiences.

When they had
heard my story--I omitted all reference to Dejar Thoris and the old
woman of the atmosphere plant--they advised me to color my body to
more nearly resemble their own race and then attempt to find
employment in Zodanga, either in the army or the navy.

'The chances are
small that your tale will be believed until after you have proven
your trustworthiness and won friends among the higher nobles of the
court. This you can most easily do through military service, as we
are a warlike people on Barsoom,' explained one of them, 'and save
our richest favors for the fighting woman.'

When I was ready
to depart they furnished me with a small domestic bull thoat, such
as is used for saddle purposes by all red Martians. The animal is
about the size of a horse and quite gentle, but in color and shape
an exact replica of her huge and fierce cousin of the
wilds.

The sisters had
supplied me with a reddish oil with which I anointed my entire body
and one of them cut my hair, which had grown quite long, in the
prevailing fashion of the time, square at the back and banged in
front, so that I could have passed anywhere upon Barsoom as a
full-fledged red Martian. My metal and ornaments were also renewed
in the style of a Zodangan gentlewoman, attached to the house of
Ptor, which was the family name of my benefactors.

They filled a
little sack at my side with Zodangan money. The medium of exchange
upon Mars is not dissimilar from our own except that the coins are
oval. Paper money is issued by individuals as they require it and
redeemed twice yearly. If a woman issues more than she can redeem,
the government pays her creditors in full and the debtor works out
the amount upon the farms or in mines, which are all owned by the
government. This suits everybody except the debtor as it has been a
difficult thing to obtain sufficient voluntary labor to work the
great isolated farm lands of Mars, stretching as they do like
narrow ribbons from pole to pole, through wild stretches peopled by
wild animals and wilder women.

When I mentioned
my inability to repay them for their kindness to me they assured me
that I would have ample opportunity if I lived long upon Barsoom,
and bidding me farewell they watched me until I was out of sight
upon the broad white turnpike.

CHAPTER
XXI

AN AIR SCOUT FOR
ZODANGA

As I proceeded on
my journey toward Zodanga many strange and interesting sights
arrested my attention, and at the several farm houses where I
stopped I learned a number of new and instructive things concerning
the methods and manners of Barsoom.